Brand consistency is a term that many people associate with marketing. Colors, images, fonts, tone, and terminology should be consistent within a certain company in order to establish brand identity. This is true whether you’re talking about a brick-and-mortar store or a website. However, many people don’t realize that brand consistency is a term that also correlates with product design. For an industrial design company like Designstein Studios, this concept is highly important to launching successful product lines.
Whether you are creating a brand new product or redesigning an existing product, brand consistency plays a part in making certain decisions. What materials, form, and finishes distinguish this product from a competitor’s product? What is your target consumer expecting from your product lines? Colors, icons, features, and ergonomics for a new item should be decided alongside the knowledge of existing products, company culture, and consumer demands. This will, in turn, affect the usability of the product.
Brand consistency is often taken for granted by those in the market because, if it is done well, the user will not notice anything different. Take the Apple brand for example. Across iPods, iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks, Apple has established a certain look and feel to their devices. They are sleek and uncomplicated to navigate. From the quality of the make to the exterior color options, consistency runs throughout their products. What would happen if Apple suddenly released a cheap, plastic phone without the Apple logo? People would likely be confused, might even start to mistrust the brand.
According to industrial design companies in California, brand consistency can help build your company’s authority. If you market yourself as a retailer that sells quality, leather-bound journals, then why would you start to sell thin, spiral-bound notebooks? Brand consistency means considering how your products fit within your brand narrative and identity. This doesn’t mean that every product has to look identical. It just means that there has to be congruency in the aesthetic and the functionality of each item. Otherwise, you might as well just become an online marketplace like Amazon.
Brand consistency ultimately builds customer loyalty. Products should feel familiar and unconfusing to your target customer. When their expectations are met, they will feel confident returning to your company down the line. This is the reason that so many iPhone users buy a MacBook instead of crossing over to Dell or HP for a laptop (and vice versa: Android users stay away from Apple products in general). Even if your company is not as big as Apple or Windows, you can still maintain a sense of trust and loyalty in your customers by giving them what they expect from your brand.
Industrial design services can help your company maintain brand consistency in your product design, whether it’s for a brand new product or a redesign. Let them do the research and determine the best way to integrate features within the framework of your brand identity and consumer needs. Contact an industrial design company to help you refine your concept into a practical, successful product!